An hour later they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut.
Hagrid first shouted "Who is it?", and after receiving a response, he allowed them to enter the hut, and then quickly turned around and closed the door.
As soon as they entered, they immediately found that all the curtains inside were tightly drawn. Although it was a warm and sunny day today, the fire was still blazing in the fireplace, and the heat in the cabin made people feel suffocating.
As soon as Maka walked in, she glanced at the pile of burning charcoal under the fireplace. He had already guessed that Hagrid had made the temperature here so high that he was obviously hatching dragon eggs. Sure enough, a big black egg was lying on the red-hot charcoal, with an empty kettle hanging on the top.
Hagrid made them tea and brought ferret sandwiches, but the trio were not interested in food at the moment, so they politely declined. Maka, on the other hand, thanked Hagrid and picked up a piece to taste.
"So—you have something to ask me?"
"Yes." Harry said, feeling there was no need to beat around the bush, "We don't know if you can tell us, besides Lu Wei, what other mechanisms protect the Sorcerer's Stone?"
Hagrid frowned at them.
"Of course I can't tell." He said, "First of all, I don't know it myself. Secondly, you already know too much, so I won't tell you even if I know. It makes sense that the stone is here. Yes. It was almost stolen in Gringotts... I guess you know all about this, right? I really don't understand how you even know about Lu Wei."
"Oh, Hagrid, you probably don't want to tell us, do you? You must know. Nothing that happens here can escape your eyes." Hermione said in a sweet and flattering tone. explain.
Hearing this slightly scary tone, Maka couldn't help but recall her sad experience of trying to please Ms. Gray. He couldn't help but raise his head and looked at Hagrid, who was being praised so much that his beard was sticking up, and then at Hermione, who was pretending to be well-behaved.
"Actually, we just want to know who designed those mechanisms." Hermione continued. "We want to know, besides you, who else does Dumbledore trust to help him."
After hearing these last words, Hagrid puffed up his chest, and Harry and Ron smiled with satisfaction at Hermione.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to tell you. Let me think about it... He borrowed Lu Wei from me, and then asked several other teachers to do magic."
"Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall -" he counted on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell... Of course, Dumbledore himself did the magic. Wait, I forgot someone... Oh, by the way, it’s Professor Snape.”
"Snape?" Harry asked in surprise.
Maka swallowed the last bite of the sandwich in her mouth, then patted the crumbs on her hands and said: "Obviously, there is nothing strange about this - except for Professor Quirrell, the other four are deans. This is normal, isn't it? ?"
"Yeah - are you still doubting him, huh? Look, Snape is also helping to protect the Sorcerer's Stone. He won't steal it."
Maka looked at Harry and Ron who looked disbelieving. He knew that this could only be blamed on Harry and his father, James, for teaching Snape too much - which directly resulted in Harry being targeted by Snape everywhere.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, right, Hagrid?" Harry asked eagerly. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you? Not even the teacher, are you?"
It seemed that Harry might have gotten some news.
"No one wants to know except Dumbledore and me," Hagrid said proudly.
Harry couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief, and then he couldn't help but said to Hagrid: "Hagrid, can we open a window? I'm so hot."
"No, Harry, I'm sorry." Hagrid replied, subconsciously glancing towards the fireplace.
Now, everyone obviously saw it.
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron said, crouching down by the fire and looking at the big egg more carefully. "It must have cost you a fortune!"
"I earned it," said Hagrid. "Last night, I was drinking in the village and playing cards with a stranger. To be honest, the man was probably just dying to get rid of it."
"But what are you going to do when it hatches?" Hermione asked.
"Hagrid is obviously looking up information. Didn't you already know about it in the library just now?" Maka said with a smile, "Hagrid, when this little guy hatches, remember to tell me as soon as possible."
"Oh, you like it too, don't you? Of course, I will tell you." Hagrid smiled happily and continued, "I just checked, it is a Norwegian Ridgeback, which is very rare. "
He looked very proud, but Hermione disagreed, "Hagrid, don't forget that you live in a wooden house."
But Hagrid didn't listen at all. He tinkered with the fire and hummed happily.
"But I have to say, Hagrid, you have to hide it well," Maka suddenly changed her tone and said seriously, "You should know that it is illegal to raise a dragon privately."
He paused, and seeing that Hagrid didn't seem to care much, he continued: "The size of a young dragon grows very quickly, and it instinctively learns to fly very early. You have already thought of where to hide it. You can't hide in this hut. I don't want to see you taken away with it, I also want to watch it grow up!"
Hagrid couldn't help but feel a little depressed after hearing this. To be honest, he also knew that he couldn't keep it forever.
"Ron, I remember that your brother Charlie works in the Fire Dragon Sanctuary in Romania, right?" Maca turned around and asked.
"Oh - yes, I think this is a good idea." Harry understood what Maka meant, "Hagrid, Ron's brother Charlie is studying fire dragons over there. There is a dragon farm there, and he will help you take care of it. Good for it!”
"Oh - no, I can't bear to part with this little guy." Hagrid wiped the corners of his eyes hard, "It hasn't even seen me yet."
Harry and others looked at each other and were about to continue to persuade Hagrid, but Maka waved her hand.
"Before we contact Charlie, I think you can see it. After all, your method of hatching the egg is very correct, and it will break out of the shell soon." Maka said with a smile, "You can raise it for a while first , I mean, before it breaks your cabin."
"Yes, yes, I think it's not a bad idea." Hagrid looked at the dragon eggs in the fireplace tenderly, as if he were looking at his child.
Not too long ago, while having breakfast one day, the owl Mafa brought him a small crumpled piece of paper with only a few words written on it: hatching soon.
During lunch break, Maka grabbed some food from the dining table, then walked towards Hagrid's hut with a big bag in hand.
"You're here, Maka." Hagrid looked very excited and greeted him with a red face. "You came a little late and missed the scene when it broke out of its shell. But it doesn't matter, the little guy can now I am energetic and much more lively than when I first broke out of my shell.”
Maka was happily pulled into the hut by Hagrid, and what greeted her was a puff of thick black smoke with sparks.
"This little guy has a strong desire to attack! Looking at it this way, maybe it's a female dragon!" Maka took out her wand and waved it to get rid of the black smoke in front of her.
"Oh, but I think it's a male. Look how handsome it is." Hagrid's eyes were like stars, and it was obvious that he really liked these magical creatures full of power.
Maka didn't care about Hagrid's different opinions, because it was really difficult to determine the gender of a newborn dragon.
He nodded casually, looked at the little dragon standing next to the fireplace and crawled around with its wings supporting its body, and said thoughtfully: "The fire dragon is a creature that is difficult to tame. It is also very intelligent when it reaches adulthood, and in the end The main thing is that the attack power is very strong.”
As he was talking, he took out a potion bottle filled with fiery red viscous liquid from the cloth bag he brought, and shook it in his hand. This bottle is not small. To be honest, it is quite heavy when placed inside the robe.
"What is this? Dragon's blood?" Hagrid asked after seeing this.
"No, it's not." Maka shook her head, "It's made from the blood of the horned whale... Well, it's a tempting snack—at least for the Norwegian Ridgeback."
"Wingardim Leviosa (note ①)."
Maka placed the bottle on the table, pulled out the cork and recited a floating spell, controlling a small ball of faintly glowing red liquid to stop steadily at the tip of the staff.
The little dragon smelled the smell immediately. It stumbled over excitedly, grabbing Maka's legs and trying to jump up to reach the tempting food.
Maka pushed it to the ground.
He raised his head, looked at Hagrid and said, "If its mother was a real dragon, she would do this. Hagrid, watch it."
After saying that, Maka swallowed the thick, hot and bloody liquid in one gulp.
Suddenly, the little dragon screamed and struggled, but Maka pressed it firmly to the floor with all her strength.
"The nutritional value of this stuff is very high, but it's unpalatable to humans," Maka's face turned a little blue, "And it's really hot to the mouth!"
Hagrid obviously understood Maka's intention. He nodded seriously, as if he wanted to memorize these steps.
When Xiaolong slowly stopped struggling and looked at Maka longingly, he relaxed the hand that had been pressing Xiaolong hard.
"Try it, little one." He made another small ball and controlled it to float towards Xiaolong's mouth.
"Hagrid, you have to do this every day until it remembers the order of eating." Maka said, "If it can remember it before being taken away by Charlie, then it will remember you for the rest of its life."
"Of course, this can only make it remember you. In fact, most types of dragons will live alone when they reach adulthood, and they will not be too friendly to their mothers. This is nature."
These methods of training dragons were all what he saw in Ravenclaw's Chamber of Secrets. In addition to what he demonstrated to Hagrid, there were actually subsequent domestication methods, but they were not very humane and he believed Hagrid would not like them.
"That's great! If Norbert remembers me because of this, I will definitely thank you very much, Maka." Hagrid gave Maka a big hug, almost suffocating him.